PSYCHOMETRY 
ITS SCIENCE AND 



LAW OF UNFOLDMENT 



IF 1286 

G8 BY J. C. F. GRUMBINE 

L898 



-opy 



1 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



COPYRIGHT OFFICE, 



No registration of title of this book 
as a preliminary to copyright protec- 
tion has been found. '7>u^ & '$< 

Forwarded to Order Division 

(Date) p ^ 
(Apr. 5, 1901—5.000.) \J^ 



PSYCHOMETRY 



ITS SCIENCE 
AND LAW OF UNFOLDMENT 



BY J. C. F. GRUMBINE 

Instructor of the School of Psychical Sciences, Chicago. 



CHICAGO, ILL. : 

Published for the: Order of the White Rose 

1898. 



TWO CO WES RECEIVED 

Library of Cengf«« % 
OffJea C f tfet 

10 1900 

Reglst«r of Copyright* 



Copyrighted. 

1898. 

Right of Translation Reserved. 

Copyright 

Imperfect 

Claim, 

4 VOt 






CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

1. Introduction 7 

2. Special Rules and Conditions to be Observed . 9 

3. Mediumship and the Spiritual Gifts 12 

4. The Soul its own Oracle and Law ..... 20 

5. How to See and Perceive with the Interior or 

Spiritual Vision 24 

6. Concentration and Centralization 31 

7. Sittings. What they Signify 38 

8. The Silence. The Voice. Divinity .... 44 



/ 



PKEFACE. 

The author of this unpretentious and condensed 
brochure maintains in the city of Chicago a School of 
Psychical Sciences where Psychometry, Clairvoyance, 
Inspiration, Psychopathy and Illumination are taught 
to regular classes. He is a public lecturer on Meta- 
physics and Divine Science, annually addressing large 
audiences in the principal cities of this country. The 
School of Psychical Sciences over which he presides 
was founded in 1893. It has steadily grown into a 
permanent and powerful educational institution. 

Through the mail by the university extension meth- 
od he has instituted the Post Office school of Psychical 
Sciences, a branch of the college, the largest of its 
kind in existence. In 1897 over six hundred pupils 
were enrolled. His practical experience in this new 
field of science has been possibly larger and more 
fruitful than any one person engaged in a similar 
work, and hence the "Teachings," or, as they are better 
known, his "System of Philosophy Concerning Divin- 
ity" should be seriously studied. It is of more than 
transient value to the world. What he teaches will 
have weight with those who have examined other pre- 
tentious systems of development and found them to 
be incomplete and insufficient. To be sure no one 
system can be perfect while all are helpful, but one 
may be superior to the other in that it is more pene- 
trative, reaches a larger number of minds, and fills a 
wider sphere of usefulness. 



6 



The author of this book is a recognized seer and is 
the founder of a new system of Philosophy — "The 
Philosophy of Divinity/ 5 the various branches of this 
great system in their order being: 1. Psychom- 
etry," a system of Philosophy concerning its law, 
nature and unfoldment. 2. "Clairvoyance/' idem. 
3. "Inspiration," idem. 4. "Psychopathy/' idem. 
Each one of these systems will appear in book form, 
the four volumes to form the essence of the new cult. 

This treatise is sent out with a purpose and a mis- 
sion, and in no sense should it be regarded as exhaus- 
tive, or even as an abridgment of the main work on 
the subject. It is a text-book and as such it will be 
of use to the student of practical metaphysics. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The student of Occultism, Mysticism, Spiritual- 
ism and Theosophy, will receive with joy any rational 
and scientific exposition of the science of Psychome- 
try. What has been regarded as the lost mysteries 
are gradually being restored through the slow awak- 
ening and evolution of the interior or spiritual con- 
sciousness of man. The human light thrown upon the 
hitherto veiled Laws and seemingly impenetrable se- 
screts of the Spirit has ever been fractional and scant. 
Few clear and intelligible works on the subjects have 
been published, and these few, while intensely interest- 
ing and instructive, have been more or less ignorantly 
or adroitly mixed with Oriental phraseology, theo- 
sophical verbiage and mystic or cabalistic symbology, 
quite beyond the understanding of the ordinary and 
unilluminated minds of the uninitiated. The occult 
rubbish which is flooding the western world in these 
later years is unspeakably harmful to those 
who are reaching out through all possible ave- 
nues for the light of truth. Why this Babel, 
or how it is possible, is explained by the confused 
and differentiated mental states of mankind. 
All think but do not think alike nor wisely. All 
are led but are not led uniformly. The kaleidoscope 
of the human spirit is the scene of a pyschic drama 
where the Infinite within this mechanism is inspiring 
and shaping the finite, and where as a result ideas are 
continuously clothing themselves in the final type or 
fashion of Divinity. To observe and accept the re- 



8 

suits of Divinity as manifest in the objective world 
as facts and to proceed no further, or seeking for 
causes to be helplessly baffled or confused by the limi- 
tations of the senses, is disappointing as material 
science proves; but to perceive the cause immanent in 
the objective world as a subjective force or law is to 
enjoy illumination, the fruit of the Science which 
we here declare and explain. Illumination is not the 
product of ordinary processes of thought. It is thought 
and the source of thought, but is spiritual and not ma- 
terial in its origin and nature. Each one can and 
does receive illumination either consciously or un- 
consciously, and it should be as we believe it will be 
in the future, the source of all true guidance and im- 
perishable wisdom. 

We teach the Socratic method of education. "We ap- 
peal or resort to experience and experiment for collateral 
and corroborative inductions of what islatent and innate 
in each human soul. Hence the success of the student 
of Psychometry will altogether depend upon his will- 
ingness to be naturally led and not artificially devel- 
oped by the many popular educative and philosophi- 
cal systems of incubation now in vogue. To be in- 
fluenced truly is not to be a prey either to accident or 
incident or to be swayed by the thought of the world, 
but to feel the Divine Influence, to perceive the truth 
and order the conduct by the vox Dei. And the ob- 
ject of this treatise is to elaborate, simplify and verify 
a Rationale of Divinity by which each one who will 
may enjoy the light of the Spirit and profit day by 
day by a wisdom which is celestial as well as by a 
knowledge which is terrestrial. 



SPECIAL KITLES AND CONDITIONS. 

It will be wise to state briefly for the benefit of 
the student the rules which he should observe in the 
unfoldment of sensitiveness by which the science of 
Psychometry is realized. These rules are fundamen- 
tal and axiomatic. They are not at all to< be substi- 
tuted for the culture which is necessary for a correct 
reading of the soul or the casting of a psychiscope (a 
view of the soul). They are simply rules which the 
science both demands and fulfills. Follow and so far 
as possible obey them. 

First. Avoid eating animal food, especially on 
the day of sittings or days when you psychometrize. 
Have the organism inoperative and passive, so far as 
food and drink are concerned. 

Second. Cultivate negativeness to spiritual vis- 
ion by sitting three times a week in silent, solitary con- 
centration of spirit. When concentrating, do not 
think of one spirit or spiritual thing, but of the ob- 
ject in mind. Be positive and definite in this. This 
is attained by permitting the spirit to assert itself in 
the sphere of its divinity and by withdrawing from 
material things and interests, from the objective to ^ 
the subjective world. One-half hour at each seance 
will be sufficient. This will afford the benefit of the 
silence and permit the spirit to declare itself. 

Third. At all times be free of care and try to 
banish from the mind all worry about material things. 
Unfold a calm, serene spiritual consciousness, so that 



10 

impressions may be lucidly and correctly made and 
received, and vibratory waves of thought may touch 
and unfold you directly and in a way to be truly inter- 
preted. All thought is motion, and the form of 
thought expresses and reveals that peculiar motion. 
To sense, perceive or to become aware of this, the in- 
nermost must be at one with the outermost ; you must 
be concentrated and centralized so as to reflect in con- 
sciousness the image or vibration that inflows through 
and from the realms of causality. 

Fourth, Never psychometrize when you feel 
sick, moody, mentally disturbed or at all uncomfor- 
table. Centralize yourself first before you seek to 
penetrate the centre of other souls. 

Fifth. Have the room where you sit in order, 
clean and filled with sweet, fresh air. The fragrance 
of flowers adds materially to a high inspiration and 
an exalted and beautiful state of consciousness. 

Sixth. Music is a spiritual accessory and aids both 
the psychometrist and the spirit to equalize and polar- 
ize the attractive, repellant or mutual forces. This is 
only advised as an aid and not as a necessity. Interior 
harmony is the state of blessedness and the best means, 
all other things being equal, to successful psychometri- 
cal practice and results. 

Seventh. A short walk before and a rest one- 
half hour after the walk will be helpful and afford a 
good condition for psychometrization. 

Eighth. Avoid promiscuous influences and repul- 
sive magnetisms before concentration and seances for 
psychometrical experiments. 

Ninth. Learn to see and listen with the interior 
consciousness; always follow your best impressions. 
Never act impulsively. Submit everything to Divin- 



1 



11 



ity, and when you feel able and ready, judge of or 
decide upon impressions correctly. 

Tenth. Write and speak of just what you receive 
and do not doubt your impressions until the error is 
exposed by the one for whom the psychiscope is given. 
Learn to rely upon your own guidance and divinity; 
then you will unfold and greater success will, day by 
day, be attained. 

Eleventh. Walk in the light of truth and love. 
Unfold the love life and light. Be spiritually, not 
carnally minded and desire, not anxiously but earnest- 
ly spiritual things, and as you aspire so you will re- 
ceive the rich and eternal treasures of the spirit. 

Twelfth. Be uniform in diet, sleep, and sittings 
for concentration as well as in exercise, recreations and 
diversions. 

Thirteenth. Always invoke the Over Soul or 
Supreme Spirit, and the spiritual nature will gradual- 
ly receive the effulgent and all-pervasive light which 
never was on land or sea. 

Fourteenth. Sit facing the east in a semi-dark- 
ened room and but for thirty minutes. Be punctual 
and uniform in the times and places of sittings. A sit- 
ting in total darkness once a week may aid in the out- 
ward recognition of clairvoyant development, which 
development is a corollary of the perception of all in- 
terior states of the soul. 



12 



LESSON I. 

MEDIUMSHIP AND THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 

It is not generally understood that niediumship 
and the spiritual gifts refer to organic function and 
psychic power, quite different in their office, expres- 
sion and planes of manifestation and expression. 
Neither mediumship nor the spiritual gifts are includ- 
ed in so-called standard works of psychology, chiefly 
because psychology deals with Divinity universally 
implied and not with Divinity individually applied. 
"Whatever has been the history and development of 
psychology, the human mind has not transcended the 
metaphysical affirmations or truths revealed by Plato 
and Aristotle, and while we teach that Plato's phil- 
osophy includes that of Aristotle, both defined the 
soul as their master Socrates defined it before them. 
Psychology is not originally a system of philosophy 
concerning Divinity. It may affirm both God and 
Spirit as immutable and eternal essences and teach the 
spiritual immanency of the universe, but so far as 
Divinity is concerned, the views of pronounced and 
accepted psychologists differ. One may hold to 
the immaterial and another to the material character 
of the cosmos, while still another may objectify or 
subjectify causality. The theological conception of 
the evolutionary character of the universe may trans- 
form Divinity into either an Intelligence or Law op- 
erating ex ma chin a or a causality governed by some 
indefinable Spirit. We hold on the other hand that 
in God we live, move and have our being, and that the 



13 

superior and inferior expressions of life, are not only 
integrally related but integrally permeated with and 
immanent in Divinity. All life is divine in and of 
itself. The objective and subjective planes and 
spheres of life are but relative conditions and states of 
the spirit's consciousness by which it realizes and ideal- 
izes itself. Spirit functions through organism, it ex- 
presses and idealizes itself through consciousness. 
Mind is the oracle of spirit through which spirit ex- 
presses its thought and life, while consciousness is 
its light by which it becomes aware of or perceives 
itself. The objective plane or hemisphere of the spirit 
could not exist or manifest were it not for spirit, as 
neither could the subjective spheres roll into definite, 
rational order of expression without spirit, but the 
spirit could be without either the objective or subjec- 
tive phases of its manifest and expressed life. The 
spirit as Divinity is central to all as well as supreme 
over any and all of its conditions and states. While 
in no sense do we affirm that any other order than the 
one which is ever "becoming" to quote Plato from his 
dialogue, Timseus, could be possible, we certainly do 
not mean that spirit must always perpetuate that 
order which is relative to its being to realize eternality 
and Divinity. We place mediumship just where 
function, structure, organism begins and cease as such, 
and it is a word which in spiritual science covers the 
ability of the spirit to use the body after it has passed 
through the change called death. As such it occupies 
a definite sphere in the order of life's operations, laws, 
principles and destiny. It expresses in one word that 
which the functions of the organic being interpret, 
without trespassing upon the dignity of causality. Its 
law and action are uniform with nature. Its phenom- 



14 



ena can be explained and investigated as any natural 
manifestation of life. Its office is none the less abso- 
lute as that which establishes the polarity of 
terrestrial and celestial affinities. Dynamically 
and chemically it is uniform in all of its 
operations. But it has to do with the ob- 
jective from a dual sphere of subjective causality. 
It works from within outwardly between two intelli- 
gent batteries. Its field is within the subjective out- 
wardly upon the objective. As such it relates or as- 
sociates one sphere to and with two corresponding 
hemispheres and shows in an order of phenomena, 
both unique and natural, what is real because ideal, 
material because spiritual, natural because divine. 
The uniform and neutral order of life is the exponent 
and revelator of what is here elucidated, but where 
the vision is sensuous or limited and the spirit 
beclouded, mediumship is a necessary help sug- 
gestively and analogically to a clear perception of the 
immanency of Spirit. 

All forms of life possess this capacity of medium- 
ship to a greater or less degree, and where it is ir op- 
erative it is still potential. It is dual in its expression, 
however, and hence is not confined to either the ob- 
jective or subjective field of its manifestations. 
Therefore we have physical and mental phases of 
mediumship and forms of manifestations. Both are 
natural and both have to do with functional, organic 
life. Whatever is possible and potential and more, 
within the sphere of existence is possible and potential 
through mediumship; the increase of capacity for ex- 
pression depending upon the exercise of celestial 
forces beyond human instrumentality and uses, as for 
instance levitation, instantaneous chemicalization as 



15 

in full formed materialization, and kindred spirit phe- 
nomena. All these phases under the operation of 
mediumship are dependent and automatic, and make 
the person who possesses any of them a medium. 

Quite different is it with all those who possess 
spiritual gifts and quite differently must the spirit- 
ual gifts be defined. Spiritual gifts are the natural 
possessions of all and are not functional nor organic. 
They inhere in spirit; therefore they can be expressed 
with or without the body as the case might be. This 
is true w T ith what is called the sixth sense and which 
we designate the one real sense of all senses, the spirit- 
ual perception, which interprets and defines all senses 
and their office and sensations. The hearing, tasting, 
smelling, even feeling, are subordinate to seeing, be- 
cause seeing leads to perceiving ; and the relation be- 
tween this so-called sense of sight or seeing and in- 
tuition is so delicate and unobtrusive that one passes 
1 ;om the outer to the inner court of spirit without real- 
izing it. We would disparage the very popular fad 
of multiplying the number of the senses and would 
encourage the efforts of the seer and mystic as well as 
all students of the spirit to generalize or synthesize 
them under the head of the Spiritual Perception. 

Psychometry deals specifically with sensitiveness , 
but as six sensitiveness is centralized or polarized in 
the mind and apprehended through it by the spirit, a 
vision of the object and subject so sensitized being 
had, seeing is really the act of perception. Now all 
creatures have this sensitiveness and perception, some 
have a hyper-degree and super-abundance of it, while 
others have very little, yet all possess it. And it is 
because of it that Psychometry is an exact and demon- 
strable science. If possessed of five senses, mankind 



16 

could utilize them esoterically or spiritually as it em- 
ploys them materially; if it could feel after spirit, as 
Paul said certain of the Athenian poets were feeling 
after God, instead of seeking in signs and phenomena 
the evidence of being and destiny, Pcychometry 
would be the most popular science in all the world. 
If one could but realize that the spiritual part of man 
is the real although the ideal and divine part, that 
which is permanent, and the source of all that is mani- 
fest on the objective side of life, a new order of society 
and civilization would dawn upon the world. The 
spirit is central to all of its modes of expression and 
sources of inspirations or impressions. It is and be- 
cause it is, it orders and can order all that is potential 
but impotent within itself. This seems a paradox 
and is to those who are credulous enough to accept 
time-honored and venerated systems of education at 
the cost of intuitive wisdom and divine guidance. 
But recognizing the spiritual within and as greater 
than and enfolding and governing the material man, 
one can perceive how life can be in-wrought as well 
as out-wrought by attention to the spiritual impres- 
sions instead of the material sensations which are 
their forerunners and messengers. For such impres- 
sions are never false or misleading, while sensations 
often miscarry and lose their tone of vibration be- 
fore they reach their destined end. Impressions like 
thoughts are spiritualized and hence proceed at once 
to the spirit, while sounds, visions, odors, all sensations 
must be synthesized and analyzed by the mind before 
the accurate impression is received. Even then such 
an impression objectively conveyed (where the spirit 
depends absolutely upon the evidences of the senses), 
may be an error or give a false suggestion. Now the 



17 



spirit in the applied work or uses of psychometry 
should school itself to live in the spirit and allow the 
perception to gather up whatever is essential to its 
life and destiny; that is, it should rely upon the soul 
of things rather than upon the things themselves. 
And as these spiritual gifts as psychometry are natural 
and independent endowments of spirit, each one's 
duty is clearly defined. We should do our w T ork not 
by proxy or substitution which are forms of obsession, 
but by using our powers to be what Divinity intended 
us to be. 

If mediumship has to do altogether with the ob- 
jective man and the spiritual gifts with the subjec- 
tive man, the one refers to a dependent and the other 
to an independent phase of the human spirit. The 
one is unique and versatile organically and the other 
spiritually. The one may be said to be a 
function while the other is functionless. The 
one makes it possible for the spirit to cast 
a shadow, and hence to see through a glass 
darkly, the other makes it possible for the spirit to 
see face to face. Mediumship is a function which 
has a psychical correspondency and is delicately re- 
lated to the spiritual man; but it is not to be con- 
fused with the spiritual gifts or possessions. Medium- 
ship is inductive and not deductive in its sphere of 
use and operation, while the spiritual gifts are alto- 
gether deductive, that is, they inhere in the spirit not 
because of organism, nor mortality or immortality, 
but because of its eternality and divinity. Therefore 
psychometry, clairvoyance, inspiration and psycho- 
pathy are not the instruments of mediumship. 'Nor 
are the so-called spiritual senses, which is a misnomer, 
the result, product or function of mediumship. Clair- 



18 



voyance, as clear seeing, clairaudience, as clear 
hearing, clairsentience, as clear feeling, are the 
spirit's subliminal modes of manifesting con- 
sciousness, and are termed senses because they 
cooperate and correspond with the external 
processes of the psychic and organic apparatus. 
When, however, it is realized that it is not the 
organ of sense or the sense that produces or receives 
the sensation or report of it but the ego or entity, the 
limitation and office of the senses will be understood. 
Each sense has its sphere of use and its end, but that 
usefulness and end subserve the soul. Neither the 
sense of sight or clairvoyance are absolute, neither 
seeing things objectively or subjectively, through the 
natural or spiritual man are independent processes. 
The outer functions could not act without the inner, 
and the inner and outer, collectively and synthetically, 
could not act with one ultimate end ever in view, with- 
out the ego. And as the body is impotent and in- 
operative when the life principle is indrawn to spirit, 
so these senses cease in their activities. The material 
cosmos did not create them, but evoked them. They 
appeared from within the spirit as potential functions 
when the use and need were made manifest. Organs 
and functions imply absolute being as well as a phase 
of it as existence or embodiment. Latent in the spirit, 
these possessions await the wand of time. The magic 
of their operation is the fiat of their uses. They cease 
to be, disappear and are atrophied when the spirit has 
served its end through them. But these inherent pow- 
ers, such as the spiritual and independent gifts 
as psychometry, are more interior and belong to more 
subtle and subliminal planes and spheres of corre- 
spondencies. They are related to the spiritual rather 



19 



than to the sense realm; and have to do with etheric 
waves and essences and not with coarser forces and 
elements. Hence what they can do through the will 
of the ego, independent of mediumship or its states 
as the trance or any induced sphere of telepathy or 
suggestion is wonderfully demonstrated by the 
achievements of the psychometrist and seer.* 

These powers of the Divine man require no ma- 
terial world for their being or exercise. Through 
them one can converse with the denizens of the spirit- 
ual world and pierce the veil of sense and matter, be- 
come an adept and participate in the arcana of spirit. 
Nay, more than this, by them the adept can become 
aware of the eternality of soul, realize the universal 
Nirvana and trace in the fashion of his divinity all 
states of the soul. He can solve the secrets of history 
and civilization, magic and religion, science and illu- 
mination and perceive the "I am that I am" in the "I 
am what I am." He can perceive the cycles of his 
being and view the phantasmagoria of nature through 
which he ascends to his sublime heights. It will be 
given him to know, as well as understand, the signifi- 
cance of Ezekiel's wheel and how the Soul, centralized 
in Divinity and polarized in love, governs his micro- 
cosm as God rules the macrocosm and how Aries and 
Libra are the circumference and centre of a circle in 
which the finite and Infinite are one. 

* Vide Joseph K. Buchanan's " Manual of Psychometry " 
and Prof. Denton's " Soul of Things." Three Vols. 



20 



LESSON II. 

THE SOUL ITS OWN ORACLE AND LAW. 

It is not generally received by psychologists of the 
old school that metaphysics should be accorded any 
marked supremacy over physics, so far as divinity is 
concerned, the universe being admittedly pervaded by 
spirit. Yet we take the ground that soul and not man- 
ifest Soul is the oracle and law of divinity, and there- 
fore the source of its own attractions. And what we 
mean by this is that the soul as reality and essence has 
within itself the law of its government. "While no 
effort is here made to misprize or undervalue the knowl- 
edge which is acquired through the senses and to make 
it serve the soul in its recognition of its divinity, yet 
precedence is given to celestial rather than terrestrial 
sources of knowledge, and for the reason that the 
perception of the Saul is always unveiled to illumina- 
tion. God is omnipresent in the Soul. No mechan- 
ism of causality or law, automatically operative can be 
substituted for the Divine Presence eternally im- 
manent. The Divine Presence can never be other 
than omnipresent. It is not susceptible to vicarious 
representation or substitution. It is ever the One and 
Eternal. It is as has been written, the "I am that I 
am," which the finite soul can appreciate if it per- 
ceives the esoteric significance of the affirmation of 
Jesus which is a refutation of materialistic psycholo- 
gies — "Before Abraham was / am." The omnipres- 
ent Soul is ever eternal, whatever may be or have 
been its normal incarnations or re-incarnations. And 



21 

from this divinity potential and immanent in each 
form of life, whether recognized, perceived or affirmed 
or not, issues the intelligence which gives knowledge 
through consciousness of thought realized through 
its own mysterious processes from within and without 
the Soul. Should we affirm that the soul can never be 
objectified or externalized, we should not be guilty of 
heresy. For manifestation of Spirit is not objectifi-* 
cation nor externalization. The Spirit is never decen- 
tralized through its incarnations or manifestations. 
It is not in the least disturbed in its radiant sphere of 
divinity. Manifestation is but its reflection, not itself; 
it is but an apparatus which like the web of the spider 
is fashioned from within the being to reach an object 
or end. But the object and end are in and of the re- 
flection — all is of the essence and from divinity. Mat- 
ter is not an entity but a form of the Spirit's presence 
in all of its elementary and combined representations. 
And while there is a law for and of form and a knowl- 
edge acquired through the sense apparatus, that law 
and knowledge are what they are because of the Soul. 
In the Soul, as Plato taught, are the spheres of ideas, 
innate, immaculate, and perfect. Forms but express 
and unveil them, they do not create and procreate 
them. Thus numerals, letters, symbols, are vehicles 
of ideas — not ideas themselves. While it may be 
true that one thinks in and through language, there is 
no authority for affirming or credulously maintaining 
that ideas cannot be perceived in the sphere of pure 
form or ideality. There is a correspondency between 
all forms and the spirit which manifests them, as be- 
tween ideas and letters, but that correspondency Is 
susceptible to an almost infinite, subliminal and spir- 
itual adaptation and purification or in a word, repre- 



22 



sentation. Thus mind through consciousness as the 
body through personality is being alchemized and 
ultimated. 

When we , affirm, then, that the soul is its own 
oracle and law, we mean that it is sufficient in itself. 
All divinity, love, wisdom, power, law are ever pres- 
ent and within it. It needs no government, no shrine 
or temple, no school, no oracle outside of itself — the 
external is the Babel of the world. The soul needs 
but to live consciously in the Divine Presence to real- 
ize all that we have claimed for it. It should perceive 
that as all growth is by the law of divinity which is 
within the soul, so all real unfoldment and exaltation 
of humanity is in and through the silence. Any basic 
effort or means to the throne is expedient but not 
sufficient. It is allowable and blameless but not God- 
like. It covers space and exhausts time but is super- 
ficial and hollow in its attainments. The commerce of 
the world, the standards of education, the criteria of 
success, the ideals of civilization, all are more or less 
shaped by the worship of the Golden Calf. "Great 
is Diana of the Ephesians" is still the popular saluta- 
tion and exhortation of the leaders of the world. 
Hence the inanity and lethargy of the State, society 
and Church. Everywhere there is the demand for 
and appeal to external authority; and to such instru- 
mentalities, vested in the powers and functions of 
State, society and church, are the masses of the people 
looking for all sorts of reform and every panacea for 
public and private injustice. When, therefore, we 
affirm that the soul alone is its oracle and law, that 
through it the logos is manifest, God speaks and in- 
spires, and conscience dictates the logos or will of the 
Divine, we speak ex cathedra. The time has come 



23 

when humanity should declare itself and lift from its 
lily of divinity the incubus of a popish and priestly 
usurpation of its prerogatives and domain. This it 
will do when once it awakens from the nightmare of 
the senses and catches a glimpse of the apostate harlot 
of the world that has stolen and usurped its throne 
and crown. 

The soul is the source of all infallibility. Each 
one has access to the truth. No one is denied the voice 
of God. Revelations like illuminations are for all 
peoples and races. The Cosmos is no respector of 
persons, neither is its law. The Divine Presence in- 
spires all creatures however lowly or exalted. Hence 
we can say without fear of denial that the universality 
and catholicity of Divinity fashions each one a god. 
Each as a spark of this incandescent flame or spirit 
of the cosmos is immanent with the Celestial spark 
and Illumination. To realize this is to understand the 
possibilities of the soul and to perceive the veils with- 
in veils which conceal the splendor of the angels and 
God. Psychometry as the science of the soul of 
things, as dealing with the Perception, discloses these 
unveiled and revealed essences and makes it possible 
for mankind to enjoy the spirit as well as its forms, 
to live in its presence as well as its manifesta- 
tions, to perceive its eternality as well as its mortality 
and immortality, to realize wisdom as well as knowl- 
edge, truth as well as science, love as well as under- 
standing and the inner, mystic circle where the light 
of spirit shines in calm and perfect harmony, as well 
as the rim and outer circumference of the world 
where all seems jargon, chaos and disintegration. 



y 



24 



LESSON III. 

HOW TO SEE AND PERCEIVE WITH THE INTERIOR OR 
SPIRITUAL VISION. 

The Spiritual or Clairvoyant vision comes under 
the immediate head of Psychometry inasmuch as it 
is a phase of the Soul's perception which is as the all- 
seeing eye. If it is maintained that the reason of the 
spiritual consciousness or subliminal self which we 
term the perception, in contradistinction, however, to 
perception or perceptions of the normal man, terms 
which are common and explicable in all standard books 
of psychology, is dual in its nature, that is, it con- 
tains the factor of power of seeing and the ability or 
capacity to realize all that is seen, we place the clair- 
voyant or spiritual vision in close relation to the per- 
ception. It is well to note here that the intuition or 
intuitions as well as conscience, which is the oracle and 
source of illumination, should not be confounded with 
the perception. The intuition should be defined as the 
Soul's capacity for divine wisdom, the intuitions the 
fruition of the perception, and as such they collective- 
ly stand for both knowledge and wisdom; it may be 
clearer to most students who are not familiar with the 
interior workings of the soul to designate intuitions 
the gathered and preserved wisdom of the Soul's past 
lives — it comprehends many states and experiences. 
It is in reality the voice of experience speaking from 
within the Soul — it is truth realized — it is not the 
truth nor all of the truth; it is truth and as such is a 
guide to the soul in all successive unfoldments. It 



25 

is, if the phrase will be pardoned, the resid- 
uum of intelligence, realized by actual tests and 
experiences, and hence is reason glorified into law. 
The ideation of the reason in any conscious state 
is tributary to it and affirms as well as confirms its 
rulings. The larger and integral consciousness in- 
cludes all states and conditions of the soul. The soul 
is not less than but all of itself. It contains every 
mode, phase, expression, form of its existence. Mem- 
ory, also, is not to be confined to or limited by any 
narrow and pedantic definition of its office. A psychol- 
ogy or a metaphysics that assures you that all that any 
one knows or may know of memory is its present phe- 
nomena may be scholastic, but the position is sciolistic, 
and is unworthy the name of a philosophy. There is a 
capacity to memory and a sphere of use, which is quite 
incomprehensible to those who dwell in and consider 
only the present phase and action of it. Memory 
really covers the whole surface and depth of being, 
extends into the illimitable spheres of divinity, com- 
prehends the past, present and future states of the soul 
and holds or retains the real and actual experiences 
and impressions of the soul. Thus intuition is the 
Being-because or the "because," which is the same as 
saying "I am that I am," which means I know that I 
am because I am conscious that I am; knowledge re- 
vealing the cause, consciousness revealing heing. The 
cause is the Divine reason for and of being which is 
truth. Hence any one can say truthfully through the 
intuition, "I know because." Illumination and per- 
ception are different, but deal with similar and not 
opposite modes of being. If the intuitions are wisdom 
acquired in previous states and are sufficient for guid- 
ance, so far as concurrent and recurrent events are 



26 



concerned, qualifying the soul to appreciate its his- 
tory, utilize its experiences, avoid its errors and mis- 
takes and overcome its temptations, in short, have a 
lucid and definite idea of its path and career, so that 
there can be no retrogressions and devolutions, if it is 
a base upon which the soul can build its celestial idea, 
and shape of or in itself the Nirvana of love, wisdom 
and peace, then, in the extended sense, profoundly far- 
reaching, illumination is as a seer to the unrealized 
ideal. It fulfills the book of intuition, not by de- 
stroying its authority but adding immeasurably to it 
and obtaining for or revealing to the soul, the neces- 
sity for both intuition and itself. Illumination is the 
father of all wisdom, and while there could be and is 
no intuition without illumination, for it is the warp 
and woof of all expressions of it, the next step to the 
logos, the difference between them is apparent to even 
the neophyte in spiritual science or theosophy. The 
perception is the entity centralized in the conscious- 
ness or the man in the dual capacity or role of human 
aifd divine, and it is by means of the perception that 
both illumination and intuition can be and are made 
to serve the office of the psychometrist. The percep- 
tion has access to its own radiant sphere of divinity by 
which it divines without the aid of sense or environ- 
ment or any external agency or aid, the palimpsest of 
the soul, its past history, present career and future 
destiny, and by which it is able to lucidly unveil or 
penetrate the soul of things; nature and human na- 
ture, the arcana of the universe, become an open book 
and nothing can be hidden from it. But mark, it is 
not here contended that all who proclaim themselves 
psychometrists are adepts; nor is it enforced that 
there are not veils which cannot be pierced by mortal 



27 

man, however proficient lie may be in his clairvoy- 
ance and spiritual perception. The ability is limited 
by its capacity, and it is the capacity which defines 
these veils of which we speak. Yet so far are the 
facts which we have affirmed true that we have no 
hesitancy in saying that even the capacity for lucidity 
is susceptible to a magnitude of expansion that the 
seemingly most preposterous claims for it may be 
realized. This will become more and more a con- 
viction as the perception is tested and the conditions 
formed for the most ambitious experiments. The 
range of the soul's vision is limited only by infinity, 
and surely it will be but a logical sequence which all 
can expect to realize and enjoy, if we affirm in the 
spirit of prophecy that this perception will supercede 
the authority and use, and the claims and needs of 
Bibles. Literature and history will reveal their spirit 
and facts under the magic of this power and the races 
will reap the fruit of a new earth and a new heaven. 
The question of method is an important one; to 
know how to perceive and see with the interior or spir- 
itual vision is a philosophy, deep and divine. True, 
no one can understand the process by studying its ef- 
fects. He may learn its law of manifestation or its 
power of evolution, its modes and its forms of action, 
but its nature will still be a mystery. He must him- 
self become its master would he perceive its philoso- 
phy. Its experiments may startle and interest but will 
never instruct him. Hence narratives of psychometri- 
cal experiments are useful in drawing attention to the 
science itself, but a study of an endless series of ex- 
periments will not give one a knowledge of how the 
perception realizes them or the adept reveals them. 
Let it be remembered that when we use the word per- 



28 



ception in so broad a sense we wish the student to 
bear constantly in mind that the entity, "I am that 
I am/' through or by means of the perception achieves 
the result. 

There are three metaphysical conditions which are 
absolutely essential: meditation or reflection, concen- 
tration or centralization and spirituality. In the next 
lesson we shall consider at length the value of the 
second condition. Here we shall confine our teach- 
ing to the first and third of these most important con- 
ditions. To meditate or rather to reflect is not to think 
over a thought as the words are commonly used, but 
to let it soak into the deeper self, the subliminal and 
spiritual being, where it can be compared with its 
ideal correspondent. Emanuel Swedenborg follow- 
ing Plato taught the law of divine correspondencies. 
Not only did he fully substantiate but he elaborated 
Plato's affirmations. The Platonic teaching of the 
innateness of ideas, that each thing has a something 
in the spirit or spiritual world to which it is akin, that 
the thing is but the form of the idea which preexists 
in the human and divine mind, that a perfect harmony 
and correspondency is here in essence and form, being 
and manifestation, and that all thought is relative as 
phenomenally viewed, but absolute and imperishable 
as divinely perceived, shows to what an extent the 
real sort of meditation will lead and how the neophyte 
can find himself by its use and enjoyment entering 
the ideal and spiritual world and being where caus- 
ality opens to him the secret workings, psychical be- 
havior and divine order of the universe. For here 
he needs but to be reminded that the subtle and per- 
fect relation which admittedly exists between the or- 
ganism and the spirit, is uniform in the organism and 



29 

in spirit between its parts, and therefore to fade from 
sense into perception, from mind into the deeper con- 
sciousness of being, from thought as objectively fash- 
ioned and cognized to thought as ideally and divinely 
realized is the object and end of meditation. Con- 
cerning spirituality it need but be said that few will 
deny its efficacy in the search after the oracle of the 
soul or the light which lighteth every one that cometh 
into the world. If chastity brings to the spirit its sanc- 
tity and vision; if innocence is a mirror of a celestial 
state enwrapped in the trance of existence; if self- 
denial, bodily ablutions, pain are spiritual processes 
which lead to the state of resignation and blessedness, 
then an active, positive love of the good is in truth 
the path to paradise. Spirituality is more than moral 
rectitude and more than intellectual culture. It is of 
the spirit inasmuch as it is a divine and not a material 
state. It is the apotheosis. It is the life of all ethical 
affirmations. It is not assent to a moral code nor a 
life consistent with any ethical or philosophical teach- 
ings. It is the fruition of a divine immanency, a 
life of sacred compliance with the soul's prerogatives, 
a realization of the vision celestial. Whatever it is or 
is not, it is the transforming and translating power of 
life, and through it the interior spheres of being are 
opened up and revealed. For such is the mystery of 
its process and divine workings that no sooner is it 
expressed than it unveils what is hidden within the 
Holy of Holies, and brings to the consciousness a 
sweet and rare effluence of light which reveals hith- 
erto unknown and unperceived powers of being. Un- 
like mediumship which is functional, it discloses what 
is supremely potential and divine in all. Medium- 
ship governs the order and quantity of spirit mani- 



80 

festations; it governs their intrinsic quality and the re- 
liability and genuineness of their source. It ever qual- 
ifies the lucidity of mind and all mystic faculties as it 
plays an important part in establishing harmony of 
action and inter-operation among all the organs of 
the human frame. It reaches to the sphere of the per- 
ception, and, by the pure atmosphere which it brings, 
enables the pure in heart to discern spiritual things as 
well as penetrate the things of time and sense. And 
therefore it, as a means to the one end which is here 
set forth, to say nothing of its value and use in the 
conduct of mankind, cannot be too strenuously en- 
forced or too openly acknowledged. By the higher 
uses of meditation and spirituality, the perception 
will become awakened and in its awakening reveal 
its secrets, unveil its power and demonstrate its su- 
perior worth and divine mission in a world and to a 
people who are slow to use and enjoy the pearls which 
are cast at its feet. 



31 



LESSON IV. 

CONCENTRATION AND CENTRALIZATION. 

Concentration and centralization have important 
bearings upon all efforts to reacli interior states and 
subjective realizations of spirit. They refer as much 
to conditions as to process and are interrelated and in- 
terdependent. In fact one involves the other. He 
who knows how to truly concentrate understands how 
to centralize. One may be accurate in his judgments, 
methodical in his reasoning, logical in his thinking, 
and yet may not apply either concentration or cen- 
tralization to their highest uses; for the uses of them, 
to which we refer or as applied to the unfoldment 
of the perception, are metaphysical and spiritual. 
Much, if not everything in such applications, depends 
upon the ability of the neophyte to understand him- 
self. The reason why so few persons are capable of 
concentration and centralization, of realizing their 
centre in mind and spirit, of shutting out from the 
deeper realization of spirit whatever is of the super- 
ficial being as the sense realm, is that they do not have 
a clear and rational idea of the order of the soul's 
life and being. They fail to perceive that natural 
law applies to consciousness and being as well as to 
its forms and manifestations, and that order is the 
spirit's law of expression and unfoldment. They do 
not perceive that this law is the very nature of the 
spirit's being, and that to know one's self is to appre- 
ciate the revealments which the law gives to each one. 
Concentration and centralization imply law; indeed, 
they signify by derivation centres or a centre about, 
from and to which all thought plays in exact relation 



32 



of centre and circumference, and that to concentrate 
is to fix all thought upon a definite centre first, and 
then upon the or one centre where the thought of the 
work in view converges. In other words, it is to syn- 
the size all thought in one subject, and direct the mind 
through the will upon that subject, so as to shut out or 
exclude from this mental exercise any foreign or dis- 
tracting thought or object, and thus by holding the 
mind to the subject await the results which inevitably 
follow. Concentration is a mental exercise but it 
may be spiritually applied, for the higher we soar the 
more beneficial is concentration. Let it here be known 
that the trance which is a form of obsession, where 
the will of another by hypnosis or suggestion controls 
or governs the outward ego and for the time sets it at 
naught, is an illustration of concentration. 

A mesmerist performs his phenomena of som- 
nambulism, catalepsy and ecstacy by concentrating or 
fixing his will upon a sensitive subject and reducing 
him to the state herein described, where his will and 
not the will of the subject is the agent and active prin- 
ciple in all that occurs through his suggestion. The 
superficial or conscious trance is always clairvoyant 
and lucid, but it is none the less effective and useful. 
There are endless degrees of the trance and the neo- 
phyte is encouraged to perceive the uses of these multi- 
form and progressive spheres in order to appreciate 
not only the law of their expression but the variety in 
unity and the unity in variety, and above all to realize 
that the more lucid the trance the higher and more 
subliminal is its state. Hence illumination which is 
realized only when the ego is absorbed in the Infinite 
Being and where, though there is no form of catalepsy 
or unconscious consciousness, as the phrase goes, pres- 
ent, yet the highest and purest form and idealization 



33 

of the trance are experienced, can be cited as a perfect 
illustration of perfect concentration. The seer or 
adept, by suggestion through concentration, exalts 
himself — the deeper spiritual and divine being — and 
comes into possession of his god-given power. And 
therefore the person who can by the exercise of his 
own will, rather than by the exercise of the will of 
another, which is dangerous and pernicious in the 
extreme and in no sense helps him but renders him 
impotent and helpless at last, induce such an exalted 
state, so as to be able to say and know as Jesus put it, 
"I am in the Father and the Father in me," has suc- 
ceeded immeasurably above the one who has by nega- 
tiveness, which is the antithesis or absence of concen- 
tration, made himself a subject of a stronger and im- 
perious will and become either a medium, a catalep- 
tic or somnambule. We do not wish to imply that the 
office and work of a medium or somnambule are not 
useful, but to affirm that while the one is useful the 
other is superior and helpful beyond comparison. To 
be is the question of questions and how to be and to 
realize being is the important issue of life. Not to 
shun or escape but to realize and enjoy consciousness 
of spiritual unf oldment are the ideal and end of these 
teachings; and while it is true that he who loses his 
life will find it, it is true in the sphere and possession 
of Being and not in the sphere of obsession and uncon- 
sciousness or non-Being. Therefore to centre the mind 
upon the more interior consciousness is to become 
more lucid of and responsive to Being, for it is to real- 
ize that the greatest part and totality of being is the 
sphere of the greatest and total spiritual Being. It is 
to be aware, not only of organ, sense, faculty, mind, 
consciousness, intelligence, but of all that they imply 
and by releasing one's self from their thralldom, to en- 



34 

jo j the fullness of Divinity. Students have felt and so 
expressed themselves in our classes that these superior 
states and realizations of spirit could not possibly be 
normally obtained; and where we have taught that 
the trance as objectively applied and not as subjective- 
ly implied does not lead the consciousness of 
any one to Divinity, but rather submerges one 
phrase or mode of consciousness that uncon- 
sciously normally but conscious supernormally, the 
spirit may bask in its subjective state, we have pointed 
out the fallacy of their assumption. Such a process 
attempts to extemporize these states in the same way 
that a florist or an incubator forces the growth of a 
plant or fowl by artificial means. The end thus 
obtained is not a conscious possession because the per- 
son has given an exhibition of the trance and through 
it revealed what is eternal and permanent within him. 
He has simply had done through artificial means which 
produce hypnosis what is commonly done by the aver- 
age clairvoyant who pierces the veils of the future 
and reveals things which are surely about to take place. 
The order of one's life is divinely ordained — none can 
change it. One can reveal or have it revealed years 
before the actual events occur and become history. 
That is not realization through your own consciousness 
because realization has to do with conscious being 
normally and not with a knowledge received through 
catalepsy or mediumship. So that we can say further 
in explanation of this view of the subject that clair- 
voyant states which are the higher forms or modes of 
the trance are extremely useful because they do not 
transgress the prerogatives of being nor usurp the sov- 
ereignty of each one's will and divinity, but permit by 
lucidity each one to realize and enjoy the totality of 
Being. Thus, to concentrate truly is to centre the 



35 

thought of seeing and perceiving upon the Perception 
and exclude from the exercise all other thought. This 
can best be done not by aggressive, painful and laborious 
effort but by no effort at all save definiteness and fixity 
of thought. Negativeness is emptiness and inanity and 
leads to chaos, but definite and fixed purpose is recep- 
tivity. Xegativeness means the opposite of positive- 
ness and should not be confused with nor substituted 
for it. Positiveness is desirable and is active, conscious 
effort while in no sense is it destructive of receptivity 
and passivity. Passivity is explained by the phrase 
"he also serves who only stands and waits/' while 
receptivity means willingness to be led, taught or in- 
formed. In concentration the most effective results 
are attained when passivity and receptivity are made 
to act harmoniously with the positive, definite and 
fixed purpose or desire of the soul. Centralization is 
a deeper and diviner process and is psychical and be- 
longs to the interior actions and attitude of the soul. 
Concentration is its corollary but it depends upon cen- 
tralization for benefits. So spiritual is centralization 
that it is akin to both prayer and aspiration and can be 
best explained by the word consecration. It is to be- 
come soul-centred in contradistinction to any other 
centres which are incident to the soul's expression and 
unfoldment. Centralization is divine contemplation, 
interior reflection and meditation, egress from the 
world of effects into the world of cause, participation 
in the Divine Presence. This can be attained best by 
cultivating spirituality, devotion, ideality, beauty, 
love of spiritual things. Centralization should always 
precede and inspire concentration, but it can follow it 
as well as precede it, if the student concentrates when 
he centralizes and centralizes when he concentrates. 
Concentration without centralization will lead to re- 



36 



suits but they will not be of that lucid and superior 
character as follow the exercise of centralization. If 
to aspire is to receive the concomitant inspiration, then 
the motive in concentration is fulfilled by the motive 
in centralization. If in matters which are material a 
seer has easier access than the medium, then the neo- 
phyte who cultivates the sphere of divine light and 
lucidity by proving both a desire for and worthiness 
of them, can penetrate deeper the material or spiritual 
w T orid — because nothing is hidden from the spirit once 
divinely awakened. It scans the manifest and unman- 
if est world, its forms and essences, and the cosmos is an 
open book. This gave to Jesus and Swedenborg, to 
Plato and Hegel their superior illumination and quali- 
fied them to become evangels of universal theosophy. 
They were heirophants, and by centralization made 
concentration the mystic door to the arcana of Being. 
They lifted exterior and interior veils of matter and 
penetrated the spirit as successfully as they read psy- 
chiscopes of mankind. All states and conditions of 
man were pierced by them and while history does not 
give a record of their sacred doctrine by which they 
triumphed over matter and form, the key to it all must 
be sought in concentration and centralization as here 
set forth. It is not denied that those who unfold seer- 
ship, lucidity of vision and adeptship are seers; nor do 
we affirm that seers are not born. We have no hesi- 
tancy in saying that all who realize this mystic power 
are seers and possess the clairvoyant and psychometri- 
cal capacity. All possess it to a greater or less degree 
of expression, immanency and unfoldment and while 
it is very pronounced and defined in some, dormant in 
others and operative in a feeble way in the many and 
not always perceived or intelligible, it can be further 
unfolded through concentration and centralization. 



37 



In applying what we have here implied to very simple 
experiments, such as sensing the quality of objects as 
salt, mustard, sulphur by the sensitive nerves of touch, 
one should be free to open the soul to the interior 
sphere of divinity by centralization, that perfect free- 
dom from all care and material impediments or en- 
vironments which might obtrude upon and affect the 
lucidity of the Soul's perception; then, by concentrat- 
ing upon the one object to the exclusion of every 
other object from the mind, the best results will follow. 
Of course we are here dealing specifically with concen- 
tration and centralization as applied to experiments in 
psychometry. In other and more intricate as well as 
complex experiments where many qualities of sub- 
stances intermingle as when auras or magnetisms affini- 
tize or cross each other, attention must be paid to 
composite sensations and the mass should be analyzed 
and separated into its integral parts, each after its 
kind. Concentration should be here applied as to 
hold the mind to the general and particular results so 
that no element of the experiment may be lost. This is 
attained by patient and long practice and not by care- 
less and irrational methods. Concentration has to do 
with results of experiments only so far as they are a 
part of the exercise. It cannot affect or destroy the 
result except where it is dissipated or vagrant. In such 
experiments where persons are concerned and histories 
are revealed the psychometrist should become soul- 
centred and read the life from the subjective as well 
as objective side and unroll the palimpsest as well as 
the mental book or record. In all such experiments 
the success will largely depend upon the absoluteness 
of the three conditions treated of in this lesson and the 
preceding lessons. 



38 



LESSOR v. 

SITTINGS, WHAT THEY SIGNIFY. 

The word "sitting" or "sittings/' unless associated 
with the word silence, have an ambiguous and often- 
times misleading meaning. Indeed, the average "sit- 
ting" of the neophyte is one so opposed to the object for 
which it is originally created that it becomes not only 
useless but in many instances positively harmful. To 
sit has usually been rather a negative occupation, in 
which nothingness and emptiness of mind, rather than 
preoccupation of mind or a definite and conscious aim 
have been conceived and entertained. Consequently 
the student is warned against any such negativeness or 
attitude to spirit in the desire to attain any psychical 
unfoldment or realization. To sit as the word literally 
signifies is to become immovable, to enter into a con- 
dition of rest or repose ; in other and plain words, it is 
to settle down, so as to be able to enjoy tranquillity, 
equipoise, harmony, which are the very opposites of 
disturbance, discontent and action. Indeed, the 
words sitting, satisfaction, Saturn, Saturday, all have 
their origin in kindred words which though given a 
various definition imply a like meaning. For instance, 
while Saturn and Saturday come from the past parti- 
ciple of sero, to sow, and sitting springs from the word 
sino, to place something, the meanings of the two words 
are strikingly identical. That which is sown is placed 
and when placed in a certain position or location it 
remains there for a definite time and end. To sow 
spiritually is really to know how to sit; or in plain 



39 

words, so to place one's self as to be able to -unfold as 
the Latin words sera and satum imply. Therefore, 
when it is understood that a sitting is a preliminary 
step to an end, a means for growth and realization, such 
words as inanity, negativeness, relaxation, emptiness 
of mind, should never be associated with or made to 
express the object of sitting. To sit thus is not to 
annihilate individuality, consciousness, concentration 
and centralization, not to depolarize being in any or- 
ganic sense, but to prepare the foundation and condi- 
tions for the growth and expression of that which is 
inner, essential and divine and which in no other way, 
except by sitting as this word is here used, can be real- 
ized. A sitting therefore has to do with the silence in- 
asmuch as it is a metaphysical attitude producing a 
physical correspondency or conformity. It has to do 
with the spirit and its divine contents or possessions. 
It subjectifies the mind by inducing passivity and re- 
ceptivity and conforming the body to the end which it 
has in view. It is not a mere physical exercise or form 
but a spiritual service ; it is not a mere fashion in which 
the spirit of the individual is only superficially inter- 
ested but it is a spiritual (not simply mental) state, 
preparatory to the deeper and diviner work which 
follows it and wdiich depends upon it. In medium- 
ship where a sensitive is seeking to express any phase 
of materialization or inspiration, sittings are more 
automatical and mechanical. The spirit is in a way 
suspended or set at naught, while that of another is 
made operative; the body or organism of the sensitive 
becoming the mechanism through which the chemists 
on the excarnate side of life are seeking to relate them- 
selves to physical or sub-mental and sub-spiritual 
environments. In such an experiment it is desired and 



40 



expected that the sensitive not only depolarize the 
thought or concentration of the thought of conscious 
control or self-possession, but become negative, rather 
than receptive, that the operators on the excarnate 
plane may adjust and perfect their instrument and. do 
their work. This is far from being the case in sittings 
for the realization of the independent power of the 
spirit. While help is afforded by spirit guides, the 
object of the sitting is for personal, individual and 
independent realization of divinity and not to inspire 
aid or cooperation from extraneous sources. In other 
words, it is to form psychical conditions which will al- 
low growth, not by any plan of incubation or auxiliary 
means, as when the seed is put in the earth and nour- 
ished by light, heat and water, it grows. In and of 
itself, the seed unfolds all that is possible and potential 
within it, because the seed is a divine entity, capable 
of material and spiritual expression. Thus, the object 
of sittings as here set forth is to prepare the soil, make 
it moist with spirit that the involuted and enfolded 
germ of divinity may uncover its blossom and arise 
into whatever expression is desired. But to attain the 
object of sittings the conditions elsewhere set forth 
(Lesson IV) must be absolutely enforced and main- 
tained. 

There is here no desire to belittle the cooperative 
aids afforded the student by exalted guides; they will 
assist and be loyal to the collective interests of the 
faithful, so dear to us all. We do not and should not 
wish to afford them less than the best opportunity for 
the realization of the ideal and the divine. No guide 
wishes to obsess or usurp the prerogatives or throne of 
another's being, but rather to aid all in reaching sov- 
ereignty and when it is said that each one can realize 



41 



the divine powers within him, it is in no sense true that 
one becomes thereby segregated and isolated. Indeed, 
it should follow that each, because one of all and each 
because one through all, should become divinely un- 
folded, where all forms of substitution such as obses- 
sion cease to be necessary and where the unity of the 
two worlds is realized in the sphere of divinity which 
comprehends all worlds and modes of being in all 
worlds, which is the realization of the apotheosis. 

Time and place, in such sittings are important only 
so far as they subserve the needs of the individual. 
They are useless considerations to any one who can 
enter into the silence any time and make conditions 
anywhere. To those who must adapt themselves to 
time and place because of material duties and inter- 
ests, the law is none the less stringent and inviolate. 
Even when sittings must condition or lead to silence 
rather than silence condition, evoke or dictate sittings, 
it should not be forgotten that subjective states are al- 
ways preferable to objective forms of spiritual com- 
munion. To sit that one may realize silence is a diffi- 
cult task, because it shows that the individual expects 
material conditions of rest or quiet to yield what can 
only be attained by mental effort or receptivity. N"o 
amount of absence of noise or presence of quiet, can 
create the silence. The silence like Spirit and all of 
its celestial and terrestrial states is uncreate. It must 
be realized not by material conformity or uniformity 
and any suggestion which may grow out of them, but 
altogether by recognition and affirmation of it. The 
silence must first be recognized and then affirmed, and 
though one may live in a condition of nature "like unto 
death," that would not afford one the key to, but rather 
would be an imperfect symbol of the Silence. The Si- 



42 



lence is not the spiritual correspondent of death — that 
is life; the Silence is the spiritual correspondent of 
action, thought, expression — it is the sphere in which 
the spirit realizes its subliminal and celestial powers, 
states, intuitions and illuminations. Therefore, while 
the neophyte is the choser of both times and places, 
these are not to be magnified as the essentials. 
It can be said, however, upon astro-psychical 
grounds that while any time and place is the time 
and place for receptivity, yet it is true that as Solomon 
expressed it, there are times and seasons for all things 
under the sun. This fact does not in the least set at 
naught the law of the Silence, nor disprove what we 
have already taught concerning it. It adds to its dig- 
nity by showing that even nature subserves it and 
impresses most solemnly upon man the idea which it 
reveals. A mind that cannot concentrate under the 
most crucial tests can scarcely be expected to do so 
where there is no necessity for effort, because concen- 
tration, as the opposite of distraction, dispersion and 
insanity presupposes adeptship; and adeptship is the 
ability which one has perfected for concentration and 
centralization. Yet, such times and places as remove 
from the mind the thought of chaos and suggest 
cosmos are not indeed to be misprized nor their value 
underestimated. Yet even such conditions will prove 
unavailing, if the neophyte refuses to recognize and 
affirm the Silence, as a state rather than a condition 
and something subjectively realized and not object- 
ively demonstrated or created. To sit, therefore, with 
the growing day is what is implied in the Solomon, or 
the man of the Sun, and to so sit that one may realize 
the significance of light, materially applied and spirit- 
ually implied. We should suggest, as in the first prin- 



43 

ciples which are given in the special rules and condi- 
tions to be observed, that the quality of aspiration and 
receptivity should have the precedence over length or 
quantity of times for sittings. 

But, if after entering the Silence, at such an hour 
and place when and where the spirit is prepared to 
enjoy its divine privileges and prerogatives, the time 
were to be considered, we should advise the morning 
hour between ten and eleven. The reason will be per- 
ceived in the sittings. By living in the Silence the 
universal Spirit Presence, reveals to the attentive spirit 
the divine power whereby the beatitudes of the Christ 
become realities in the soul life of humanity, and 
whereby the book of life is unrolled as a scroll. 






44 



LESSOR VI. 

THE SILENCE. THE VOICE. DIVINITY. 

Ik" the preceding lesson we dwelt upon the con- 
trast between sittings and the Silence which, compara- 
tively speaking, truly defined the phrase, "sitting in 
the silence'' as a spiritual state and not a material con- 
dition of inertia or unconsciousness. It will be 
necessary to dwell upon the word silence in a more 
extended metaphysical and meta-mental way, in order 
to have the student perceive the relation which exists 
between the Silence and the variety of modes of sub- 
consciousness, such as the trance and the clairvoyant 
form of illumination and perception which oftentimes 
either precede or follow both concentration and cen- 
tralization through the Silence. The Silence is not a 
law to or of itself. It is a dependent state and is sub- 
ject to and governed by the will. True, the Silence 
like health, harmony, joy, wisdom, love, oneness, are 
essential states of being; they cannot be created nor 
produced. They are of being and are to be realized. 
Nevertheless, while this is so, it must be remembered 
that all states are conscious only through and not inde- 
pendent of the will. The will deifies these states, that 
is, makes them personal or an individual, conscious, 
divine possession. The will puts these absolute states 
into service. All states lie enfolded within being but 
the word will like the word expression signifies realiza- 
tion. Realization is not possible without will. "I am 
that I am" or "I will to be that I am," are in a sense 
equivalent phrases; but it is through the latter that 



45 

one perceives or realizes the former. "I am that I 
am" is a statement of absolute being and it is unques- 
tionably true that the Divinity or entity realizes its 
eternality per se, but while this is true of Absolute 
Being or Divinity, where there are no intervening or 
intermediate veils existing between the Soul's states, 
or separating one sphere or mode of consciousness from 
another, as may be illustrated by the sub and hyper 
states of consciousness, yet the order of the Soul's 
apotheosis must not be lost sight of. One cannot real- 
ize the logos either as applied through the vehicle of 
the natural man or as implied in the spheres of the 
spiritual or celestial man, save by will. Absolute con- 
sciousness is absolute choice and volition to realize it, 
already possessing it. Hence where the silence is con- 
ceded to be a primal, unchanging, eternal state of 
being, it is also true that it must be realized by the law 
of its being; and here is where both the will and the 
logos unite, the logos being the will of the Infinite 
Divine, immanent in the finite divine, while the will 
as here set forth is the executive capacity and power 
for its realization and enforcement. The Silence thus 
becomes a conscious state by which consciousness itself 
becomes awakened, and by its awakening the spheres 
and powers which lie potentially within it become 
openly perceived. 

It will be apparent that the word sphere is a mys- 
tical word, susceptible to an esoteric definition. Like 
the circle it is comprehensive and incomprehensive, 
paradoxical as the statement is, having a circumfer- 
ence, limited only by manifestation and a centre illim- 
itable in expression. Within the latter appear all the 
circles or wheels spoken of by Ezekiel in his prophecies 
and not only is the square but the circle as used ijn 



46 

mystic Masonry within the sphere of its divinity. One 
is its content and two is its dual phase of expression, 
yet the odd and even numbers are of one in one, as 
Pythagoras taught in his secret doctrine. Each par- 
ticular or individual sphere within the universal sphere 
has its trance or veil, its objective and subjective phases 
of expression and this is the reason why the Silence is 
the sphere of the Soul's realizations. There can be no 
concentration nor centralization without making 
trances, which literally means transits, or passings 
from one sphere to another, and indeed so even in 
thought or states of spiritual being. Hence, to enter 
into the Silence is to close the door to that which is 
opposed to it or, to use metaphysical language, that 
which is its material correspondent or counterpart. It 
is to be, not appear to be; it is to realize being, not 
mingle in its phenomenal aspects; it is to know and 
enjoy reality and not communicate with forms only; it 
is to exalt the soul to its inner court of being and there 
abide and not act through vehicles and reside in the 
temporal and corruptible. It is in short to be God-like, 
or better still to be of God in the realization of the 
Divine Immanency and Illumination and not to live as 
a shell fish, in the under currents of the enfolding and 
over Soul of the universe. Thus the trance, not as an- 
nihilating but expressing consciousness, not as obsess- 
ing but as aiding in the possession of being, not as lim- 
iting but revealing the soul, is helpful in all work of 
spiritual unfoldment. It will here be noticed that we 
speak of the trance not as producing death or a state 
of unconscious consciousness, a state which is the ab- 
sence of a normal consciousness while the soul lives in 
a hypersphere of being separated from its body or is 
operation upon 8 ub-consciously by an extraneous being; 



47 



for the trance which destroys even so much as a nor- 
mal consciousness through an excarnate spirit control 
is never to be sought, nor is it ever to be preferred to 
spheres of conscious illumination which is our defini- 
tion of the results of the trance as we employ the 
word. It is its spiritual and mystical signification. A 
mystic and a seer are men and women who know how 
to close and open the lips and the eyes as the words 
themselves mean by derivation. And to close the lips 
and eyes not as in death but with a conscious awaken- 
ing to deeper, higher, diviner states is the realization 
of this ecstatic, illuminated state. 

It is through and in the Silence where the Voice 
is heard, the vox Dei. This is the mystical meaning of 
the "voice in the wilderness" and its pleading, pathetic 
command, "prepare ye the way of the Lord." For it 
is in the openness of the soul where the Christ is per- 
ceived and realized and where the voice is heard. There- 
fore the Silence is not to be confounded with any lim- 
ited sphere or plane of sense perception or understand- 
ing, but it to be likened to an infinite area of possi- 
bility and opportunity, which the word openness alone 
describes. It is as a wilderness, a virgin domain that 
is untouched and unopened but one covered, over- 
shadowed and permeated by the Adorable One whose 
voice is heard from afar; and it is here where the way 
is prepared for the Divine Recognition, Baptism, Re- 
generation and Illumination, and where all flocks be- 
come united under the guidance of the one Lord or 
Shepherd. Need it be said that it is here also where 
Divinity becomes a realization; for as Paul expressed 
it, carnal things are carnally discerned and experi- 
enced, but spiritual or divine things are spiritually or 
divinely perceived. It is here where the eyes and ears 



48 

are opened and one becomes clothed with the Sun. It 
is here where the keys to the scriptures are received 
and one reads the sacred writings understandingly, be- 
cause it is here where the baptism becomes one of fire 
and one is able to speak with tongues of fire and inter- 
pret life's book aright. The inner man is born, the 
divine consciousness is awakened, the spiritual percep- 
tion is quickened, the oracle of the soul, the intuition, 
and the oracle of Divinity, the conscience henceforth 
reveal the deep things of God. Wisdom touches the 
understanding with its celestial flame of truth, and love 
opens the book of life to the unwritten and unre- 
vealed law of good. 

And here in this inner realm of spirit the divine sci- 
ence of psychometry restores the palimpsest of the 
Soul, its past life and record, opens the present and re- 
veals the future, giving to men the key to divination, 
prophecy and seership, but above all, teaching him 
how to realize and enjoy the divine in the fullness of 
time. This is indeed the more excellent way of life 
and being which is realized by aspiring for and unfold- 
ing the best gifts or powers, and it is a way sufficient 
in itself, without the need of college, church or state, 
without the need of philosophies, religions or magna 
charta, without the need of mediumship, a way de- 
fined by intuition and illumination, through the 
oracle of the Soul which is the oracle of the Voice and 
the oracle of the Divine. All other aids, because such, 
will fail. The Soul's powers are alone sufficient for at- 
taining and realizing Guidance, "Wisdom, Love, Power, 
Illumination, Peace. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 






022 172 018 



